INDIANAPOLIS — The task was to knock off a second unbeaten, state-ranked team in as many weeks.
Even with the opponent being No. 1-ranked powerhouse Lawrence North and its starting point guard sitting out with an injury, New Palestine’s boys basketball team came pretty close to giving another team its first loss of the season.
Ranked No. 17 in the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association poll, the Dragons led at the end of each of the first three quarters, but the top-ranked Wildcats got the lead on a pair of Brennan Miller free throws with 3:42 remaining and led the rest of the way to hand the upset-minded visitors from Hancock County a 57-48 loss.
Lawrence North improved to 16-0 with the win. New Palestine dropped to 11-4.
The game had 15 lead changes — eight in the first quarter and 10 in the first half — and six ties.
“Watching LN all year, they’ve done this a lot,” New Palestine coach Trent Whitaker said. “It’s close at halftime. It’s close in the third quarter and they usually just pull away, that’s what great teams do. Our kids kept battling, fighting, scratching, clawing, everything they could possibly do. I told them I was proud of their effort. We talked about composure, confidence, and competing and I thought they did all three of those pretty well.”
New Palestine won at then-No. 12 Richmond 64-59 on Jan. 16. The Red Devils had won their first 16 games prior to the Dragons spoiling their perfect season at the Tiernan Center.
On Wednesday, the Dragons played without junior point guard Moses Haynes, the team’s second leading scorer (10.7 points per game) and one of the state’s leaders in assists (ninth at 6.1 per game). He got banged up at a Monday practice. Whitaker said he’s unsure when Haynes will return.
“Moses is our engine. He makes us go,” Whitaker said. “He makes Julius [Gizzi] really good and he takes pressure off of other players. Not having him tonight we had to have other kids step up and grow up a little bit. That’s why we play these games, to get better.”
The Dragons did have the state’s third-leading scorer in Gizzi (30 points per game). He scored 36 of the Dragons 48 points, but it wasn’t quite enough to defeat the state’s top-ranked club.
Gizzi had 17 of the team’s 26 first-half points and 12 of the club’s 15 third-quarter markers. Unofficially, he was 12 of 25 from the field (48 percent). He hit 10 of 12 free throws (83.3 percent). Five of his 12 made field goals regained the lead for the Dragons.
He did most of the scoring, but the Dragons had a lot of different players contribute in their battle with No. 1.
Austin McMahan, a 6-3 junior, had eight rebounds and a lead-changing bucket. Ben Slagley, a 6-4 junior, had a pair of first-half blocked shots and seven boards. Junior Keagan Harrison hit a big third-quarter 3-pointer to tie the game after LN had just regained the lead. Lone senior Brady Armstrong hit a first-quarter trey to help get New Palestine off to a great start.
“I think we’re a lot better than we realized, being able to compete against a team like that without our point guard,” Gizzi said. “That means a lot. I don’t think there will be another game the rest of the season that we won’t be confident in because we just played like that against that kind of team.”
It was Gizzi’s 10th 30-plus scoring performance of the season. He also had 36 in a win last week over Roncalli. He scored a season and career-high 43 in a December win at Franklin Central.
Lawrence North junior standout Azavier Robinson had 21 points, 14 coming in the second half. Wildcat 6-9 sophomore Kai McGrew scored 10 and the 6-8 Miller finished with eight.
“Defensively we did a nice job of packing the paint and making them shoot a little bit,” Whitaker said. “It’s difficult to rebound [6-9, 6-7] but our kids battled and did the best they could.
“We play these games so we can compete better in March. Sometimes certain teams don’t help you get better, but we got better tonight.”
New Palestine returns to action Friday with a Hoosier Heritage Conference game at Yorktown.
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Lawrence North 57, New Palestine 48
New Palestine;18;8;15;7;—;48
Lawrence North;17;4;17;19;—;57
New Palestine (11-4): Brady Armstrong 1 0-0 3, Keagan Harrison 2 0-0 5, Julius Gizzi 12 10-12 36, Austin McMahan 1 0-0 2, Ben Slagley 1 0-0 2, Evan Darrah 0 0-0 0, Alex Guhl 0 0-0 0, Rigg Mahurin 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 10-12 48.
Lawrence North (16-0): Brennan Miller 2 4-4 8, Azavier Robinson 7 6-10 21, Kai McGrew 4 2-4 10, Myles Baker 1 4-4 7, Kobi Bowles 3 0-2 7, Jamar Thomas 0 0-0 0, Cameron Webster 1 1-2 3, Davion Hampton 0 1-4 1, Kendal Bell 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 18-30 57.
3-point goals: New Palestine 4 (Gizzi 2, Armstrong, Harrison). Lawrence North 3 (Robinson, Baker, Bowles).
